The proposed Priya’s Law hopes to bring clarity to new parents that employers can’t cancel paid parental leave if a child is stillborn or dies.
It’s clarity that’s needed in the immediate aftermath of an unimaginable tragedy, with the name of the proposed amendment coming from baby Priya, who died when she was 42 days old. Ten days later, Priya’s mother received a message that her employer was cancelling three months of her pre-approved paid parental leave.
The bill is hardly controversial and is expected to pass with bipartisan support.
And yet somehow debate over this bill turned into concerns that new mothers may use it to somehow game the system, and be incentivised to seek late-term abortions.
The “concerns” and “unintended consequences” of the bill were raised by some of the usual suspects, including Coalition MPs Andrew Hastie, Barnaby Joyce, Tony Pasin, and Henry Pike.
The men mostly support the “intent” of the bill, with Hastie even mentioning a good friend who had explained what it meant to him and his wife.
But these usual suspects wouldn’t miss an opportunity to take a dig at hard-fought reproductive rights, make unhinged claims about abortion, and put forth some subtle but unsubstantiated suggestions that women are spending their spare time seeking legal loopholes to exploit.
Indeed, Nationals MP (at least for now) Barnaby Joyce took the opportunity to share his belief they have a “duty of care” to ensure that nobody has “a license to extinguish the rights” of a person, even if that person is not cognisant of their rights.
“We have a duty of care or we believe – and others don’t – but we believe we have a duty of care to stand in this Parliament and stand up for those rights.”
He said this despite this amendment having nothing to do with abortion, but rather concerning the behaviour of employers when an employee experiences a stillbirth or the death of a baby.
To be clear, the bill debated on Wednesday does not create a new entitlement draws on existing definitions that already apply to unpaid parental leave under the Fair Work Act and to government-funded paid parental leave in the Paid Parental Leave Act 2010.
But don’t let that stop the men of the right.
“I do have a question about the unintended consequences of this Bill and it applies to late term abortions,” Hastie told parliament.
“It’s no secret that I’m opposed to late-term abortions. And so the point of my speaking this morning is to affirm the intent of this Bill, which is to give certainty for families suffering through the loss of a child. And I absolutely support the intent of that and I think it’s a noble and good thing and Baby Priya’s Bill deserves our support for that reason.
“But I do call upon the government to clarify that it does not apply to late term abortions,” he said.
Tony Pasin backed up the sentiment, noting that while paid parental leave should be available to all parents and to those who wish to be parents, paid parental leave “shouldn’t be available to people who don’t wish to be parents.”
Henry Pike also had concerns. “There have been some concerns recently about whether that definition covers a stillbirth caused by a later term abortion. I hope that is not the case and I hope within this bill we are not including that.”
Pike made his comments fresh after publishing an op-ed in The Australian regarding the future of the Liberal Party. “I can see only one path to victory: the road less travelled,” he wrote.
And yet these men of the right seem determined to keep trodding over the same territory.
They formed part of a “small minority that tried to hijack the Bill and pretend it’s something that it’s not,” according to Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Amanda Rishworth.
“What this Bill is about is giving certainty to grieving parents at the most difficult time of their lives. It is a critical piece of legislation that should receive the support of the parliament,” she said.
Speaking on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing. Health Mininster Mark Butler said the comments from Coalition backbenchers were “distressing”.
“The men who are doing this, and they are all men, know the difference between stillbirth and abortion,” he said.
“These men know the distinction. I’m concerned that what they’re doing is deeply cynical politicking. How often when we’re talking about constraining women’s rights, constraining women’s support through these incredibly important nd at times distressing events in their life, it’s men leading the charge.”
Butler also noted that no women in the Coalition have entered the chamber to make the kinds of arguments Hastie, Joyce and others were making.
“It’s all the men on the right wing of the Liberal and the National Party and I just say to them: enough, just stop it. This is with about 3,000 families in our community that go through one of the most distressing events imaginable. We’re just trying to give them a bit of support. You know the definitions are clear. Just stop it.”
It’s incredible to think that a bill aimed at preventing employers from doing something as horrible as cancelling pre-approved parental leave for a grieving mother would somehow turn into men making unsubstantiated arguments about the “intent” of mothers.